LAS VEGAS (AP) - A nearly $2 billion Las Vegas football stadium will be completed on budget and on time for the NFL’s relocated Raiders, project and team officials insisted Thursday, including behind-schedule installation of the translucent roof of the shiny 65,000-seat venue.
All 54,000 ticket reservations have sold out, and Raiders President Marc Badain told the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board that information buyers have shared shows 60% are from Nevada. Most of the other 40% are from California. Costs for the reservations, dubbed personal seat licenses, ranged from $500 to $75,000.
“The support has been overwhelming,” Badain said of sales that topped estimates by $228 million.
The extra money is being used to help fund high-speed internet connectivity and more than 2,000 dynamic video screens and signs at the facility now named Allegiant Stadium.
Don Webb, of Las Vegas Stadium Co. LLC, bristled at what he termed “unfortunate” recent headlines about a delay hoisting the roof into place. He said the failure of several bolts on a truss structure caused no injuries or damage but prompted a new inspection; replacement of the broken parts; and reinstallation as a precaution of 1,700 other bolts in more than 100 similar connections.
“Because Allegiant Stadium is an enormous high-profile project with unprecedented public scrutiny, any construction hiccup becomes exaggerated throughout social media and the press,” Webb said. “During the ordinary course of building anything, not everything always falls into place as smoothly as planned.”
Regular work has resumed, Webb told board members, and the roof will be installed in May instead of April.
“On schedule and on budget,” authority analyst Jeremy Aguero said, repeating several times the July 31 target date during his financial overview of the $1.97 billion project. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas football team is scheduled to play there Aug. 29, Sept. 5 and Sept. 12. The Raiders home opening game has not been scheduled.
Aguero and Webb each noted the number of hard-hat workers at the site just off the Las Vegas Strip has swelled to 2,000, now working six-day weeks.
Badain said the team is spending $50 million to reserve parking spaces, just not in one large lot, and seat license customer surveys suggest supply will “significantly” exceed demand.
Projections are that 12,000 spots are needed, the team president said, and the Raiders have secured commitments for 15,000 of the 30,000 vehicle spots identified in walking and shuttle distance.
Some 7,000 parking spaces could be available for fan pregame tailgating gatherings, which Badain said will be “encouraged, available and … part of the game-day experience for the Raiders.”
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